Vitalik Buterin Unveils Ethereum Layer-1 Privacy Roadmap

New blueprint outlines payment confidentiality, app-level anonymity, and RPC privacy enhancements

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has released a comprehensive proposal to upgrade privacy at the base layer of the network without overhauling its core architecture. Shared on April 11, the roadmap introduces four major areas of focus aimed at protecting user confidentiality on Ethereum’s Layer-1 while maintaining compatibility with current systems. The plan prioritizes private on-chain payments, obfuscation of interactions within decentralized applications, concealment of read-access data, and anonymization of network-level communications.

Buterin emphasized that if implemented effectively, these privacy enhancements could reshape the Ethereum user experience, enabling default-private transactions while preserving transparency for decentralized finance functionality. Though individual actions on a dApp may still be visible, the link between a user’s behavior across multiple platforms would be significantly harder to trace, addressing both observer surveillance and infrastructural vulnerabilities like compromised RPC nodes.

At the heart of the proposal is a push to integrate privacy protocols directly into mainstream Ethereum wallets. Citing tools such as Railgun, Buterin argued that users should be able to maintain shielded balances through native wallet interfaces rather than being forced to rely on specialized third-party applications. He suggested that options like “send from shielded balance” should be turned on by default, ensuring that privacy-first features are embedded into standard workflows without requiring technical expertise or additional downloads. The user interface, he noted, should feel intuitive and require minimal user intervention.

To further limit traceability, Buterin proposed that users adopt distinct addresses for each dApp interaction. While acknowledging that this could introduce user experience trade-offs, he maintained that the added privacy benefits—particularly when combined with private send-to-self transactions—make the approach worthwhile. These changes mirror existing cross-chain practices, where users already manage different identities across networks. Embedding this behavior directly into app-level workflows would create a cohesive privacy model across Ethereum's ecosystem.

Buterin’s vision also includes several infrastructure-layer recommendations. In the short term, he suggested using trusted execution environments (TEE) to secure RPC calls while preparing for longer-term integration of private information retrieval (PIR) protocols. Additionally, he advocated for enhanced keystore wallets, proof aggregation support, and isolating dApps through connections to separate RPC nodes. Collectively, these technical refinements are designed to address both usability and privacy, enabling a more resilient and user-protective Ethereum experience.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.